To promote a full inclusion of 1 million poor children in the information society is the single most important task we have as a nation.

According to official data (2003) we have 1,260,560 people below 18 years old living in poverty. Those children and young people represent about a fourth of all Chilean poor. About 1 million are in formal education, probably struggling on a daily basis to fulfil the requirements of a demanding system they are not even sure they can finish. The future is as uncertain as the present for them.

Unfortunately, today’s poor and disadvantaged children are going to stay trapped in the vicious circle of poverty unless we take further action, as a nation, to actively include them in the future of this country. The future, according to all views, is going to be built around knowledge, technology and innovation.

Chile has never been as financially well-off as today. We have the possibility to make radical investments to boost education with the help of new technologies. Our government has committed a stronger support to education and an expansion of ICT-related services, specially the Internet. However, we need to go beyond.
 

We have to pursue a national agenda of competitiveness and innovation that effectively includes those children living in poverty. To do so, we must empower those children with all the available tools: Any efforts should be made to guarantee them full access to the newest ICT, including powerful computers and reliable broadband Internet.
 

To promote a full inclusion of 1 million poor children in the information society is the single most important task we have as a nation.

We have to give them the both the tools and the opportunities to thrive in a global economy increasingly dominated by new technologies. If we succeed in this quest we’ll become a developed nation, but if we don’t we’ll remain trapped into the same historical path we already know. We should do it not only because it’s good for our national economy, but also because, ethically, it is the right thing to do.

The background reading for this post is:

UN Global E-government Readiness Report 2005

From E-government to E-inclusion

The report concludes with several policy recommendations we should carefully consider. Here some excerpts

The Way Forward: A Policy Agenda

• The importance of information technology as a tool for socio-economic development needs to be fully embraced by developing countries. ICTs usher in changes not often accepted readily by traditional societies.

• Information disseminating should be carried out by the Governments to increase the level of awareness regarding the benefits of ICTs. Campaigns targeted at making the local population realize the importance and advantages of becoming a part of the Information Society are needed.

• The foremost responsibility of the government in ensuring that all its citizens have an equal access to ICTs is to have a coherent and strategic policy geared towards the propagation of ICTs. Preparing, creating and managing a policy and program of access and inclusion require a visionary and committed leadership. To ensure an equitable development of all the regions, a coordinated policy is required at the national, regional and local level.

• Governments, especially in the developing world need to realize the

importance of ICTs as the engine of economic and social growth. In this context, infrastructure needs to be strengthened to increase both the level and cost of connectivity that in some countries is prohibitively expensive.

• Governments can play the role of a catalyst in generating ICT demand in their country by creating an enabling environment for the growth of ICTs. They should invest in research & development to encourage the production of low cost ICTs to enable the vast majority of people to have access.